The corner of Farwell and Galloway in downtown Eau Claire juxtaposes the cheaper “spun aluminum” light poles with a recently installed and fancier option. They stare at each other in silent animosity.

    City Council Vice President Dave Duax recently visited Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza, a massively successful shopping and dining district. But what makes this area unique and successful, Duax said, is not just the businesses, but a “package” pushed forth through renovation efforts that resulted in façade improvements, fountains, historic architecture, plantings, railings, a riverfront, and light fixtures.

Eau Claire is preparing to face similar renovations of major commercial corridors with construction on Hastings and Barstow. Many believe we stand to reinvent the city’s image and character with these projects, but debates about decorative light fixtures already threaten the “packaging” concept and may be a sign of fights to come.

“If we’re going to do a nice job with boulevards and sidewalks and streets – something different – and then put in some inadequate lights, we’ll defeat some of the purpose of an otherwise great job,” Duax said. “Either we’re gonna do it all, or not. It’s decision time.”

Before now, streetlight decisions were deferred to public works, who chose high-end lights for parks, cheap ones for car-centric areas, and in commercial corridors they let the business owners decide because they’d be the ones assessed for it. But grey area situations like the woonerf on Thorp Drive and the mixture of residential and commercial on South Farwell have passed the torch to council.

The choices are: decorative black gooseneck poles (often in pedestrian areas like Phoenix Park), the dark brown poles (currently found on Barstow), or silver spun aluminum poles (found in car-centric areas everywhere). “From the aesthetics side, everyone agrees,” Duax said of the decorative ped poles. “It’s when they see the price tag that the problems occur.” Those poles are $6,700 each, compared to the $3,100 and $2,900 for the other two.

The city’s current policy to pay for lights in commercial areas is one-third to the commercial building owners and two-thirds from the general fund (taxpayers). So when North Farwell got new lights last year, The State Theatre (a non-profit) had to pay nearly $7,000 for the two lights on their property – not a simple chunk of change by any measure. And though building owners pay for them, increases in rent mean business owners and renters pay, too.

  The problem arises in residential areas because all taxpayers have to foot the bill, not just the ones with decorative lights. “The question we’ve got for the future is … do we change the formula? Do we help out the businesses? Do business improvement districts help pay? Do we assess residences? These are the questions we have to answer,” Duax said.

Unfortunately the city has very few options for helping get funds for decorative lights (short of assessing residents and/or giving them the utility bills), so if we want decorative lighting anywhere, residents and businesses need to be willing to pay extra for them. And one could argue that, in city centers, gathering spaces, and commercial districts, residents should take pride in how they look and businesses stand to gain from people stopping because of the aesthetics. Others could argue it’s just a street light, and the aesthetic gain isn’t worth the difference in price.

Currently the city has 5,300 streetlights, and decorative lights comprise 586 of them. They exist almost exclusively near downtown and in parks, and Public Works Director Brian Amundson said in areas like West Grand, Water Street, and Phoenix Park the lights were specifically chosen to be unique to the area.

The lights on North Farwell were agreed upon by the North Barstow BID based on the design guidelines for Phoenix Park, Amundson said. And though Downtown Eau Claire Inc. and South Barstow BID have not specifically endorsed fixtures, Amundson said they will be involved come time for Barstow reconstruction in 2011. Those lights may follow the Comprehensive Plan (approved in 2005) specifications of decorative pedestrian lighting with banners and electrical outlets, but it depends if downtown business owners are in agreement.

Sandi Meinsen of Dessert First is already picking her battles when it comes to things to fight for in the reconstruction, and light poles isn’t one of them. “When I go downtown I don’t look at the streetlights; I look at the facades, the riverfront, the railings, the plantings, things at eye level. That money can go toward beautification in other ways.”

    Others, like Cadeaux owner Lorraine Dixon, aren’t looking at the light poles as short-term cost burdens but as long-term efforts to better downtown. “I’d like to see downtown have more character, and obviously that will cost more money, but doing things like this make downtown more interesting and hopefully it becomes an attraction.”

When the council meets at another work session this summer, members will choose between inexpensive lights that illuminate large amounts of street for cars or decorative lights that look better and serve pedestrians, but require more units and cost more money, but only for the areas of South Farwell and Thorp Drive.

Amundson said they are leaning toward the less costly option on Farwell, likely ending up with spun aluminum poles painted black. Council member Larry Balow said many see South Farwell as a car-centric residential area needing tall poles, despite the proximity to the university, Just Local Food, and Wilson Park, not to mention the fact that it’s a major gateway to downtown and gives visitors an impression of who we are.